7thriv

Another political prosecution by the Department of Jsutice has come a cropper, but - as with Ted Stevens - you will be surprised at the targets of prosecutorial misconduct: they are WR Grace executives being tried for murder arising from asbestos exposure: Judge Dismisses Charges Against Defendants in Grace Asbestos Trial

Lawyers for Grace asked last week for the charges to be thrown out after two
months of testimony. They accused prosecutors of repeatedly violating court
orders to turn over evidence favorable to the defense and of putting on the
stand a star witness whose credibility, they said, has since been shattered by
information about his character, motivation and relationship with the
prosecutors that the jury never heard about.

Prosecutors for the most part did not fight back, but said repeatedly that
they thought most of the missteps had been small, and that they were sorry for
the rest.

Judge Molloy responded with strong statements about their judgment, ethics
and tactics. He wondered aloud about his options, from declaring a mistrial to
throwing out the testimony of the star witness, Robert H. Locke, a former Grace
executive who testified that the executives had known of the dangers and were
actively involved in covering them up.

Criminalizing an environmental prosecution like this is as oppressive as anything the NAACP might complaint about. The weight of the federal government was brought down on some retired executives by prosecutors with a cartoon view of corporate decision making. Did the feds honestly believe that these guys sat around chuckling over cancer risks? I know that's what happens in the movies, but these guys were making decisions at a time when the "science was settled" as to asbestos exposure until, whoops, it wasn't. Rather than let it go, the US Attorneys cut corners until they were no longer prosecuting wrong-doing, but were simply seeking revenge for the "Silent Spring".

We are told over and over again that environmental causes are a matter of "justice." Often, however, the crocodile tears shed for the environment are simply a cover for attacks on the productive classes of America by the resentful Left.